I am an amateur historian, druid, and author of 11 books so far. I have a great passion for ancient history, particularly Ireland, Greece, Persia, and Egypt. I have been a student of Druidry since the mid-1990s and I have also had a passion for history and mythology since I received a children’s version of The Twelve Labours of Hercules when I was around 7 years old.
I am fascinated with this episode in Bronze Age history, and this book delves deep into this period of turmoil and chaos that affected the Mediterranean region in a dramatic way.
There are so many unknowns about this period, but the authors do a great job of trying to piece together a coherent story of the disaster that ended or set back civilizations across southern Europe, North Africa, and the Levant.
This title features up-to-date historical and archaeological research into the mysterious and powerful confederations of raiders who troubled the Eastern Mediterranean in the last half of the Bronze Age.
Research into the origins of the so-called Shardana, Shekelesh, Danuna, Lukka, Peleset and other peoples is a detective 'work in progress'. However, it is known that they both provided the Egyptian pharaohs with mercenaries, and were listed among Egypt's enemies and invaders. They contributed to the collapse of several civilizations through their dreaded piracy and raids, and their waves of attacks were followed by major migrations that changed the face of…
Akhenaten was a real outlier in Egyptian history, and I found this book very insightful and readable, even though it is an academic book. This Pharaoh was erased from history (by the following 19th dynasty), and this book goes a long way in explaining why this happened.
It’s an incredible story, and one must wonder how he died and why there were so many sudden deaths in the family. Perhaps not all the answers will come to light, but this is an amazing insight into his life and the short-lived religion he created.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This discovery really shook up the world of archaeology, and Vallianatos’ book tries to explain the whole mystery in an easy-to-understand way. I found it quite comprehensive, and it clearly shows that our preconceived ideas about the ancient world are often wrong.
The Greeks and other peoples were considerably more advanced than we generally give them credit for. This device is quite incredible, and such artistry and technical expertise were forgotten and not regained until only a few hundred years ago.
I love discovering new information about the past, and this item is earth-shattering, a unique window on an aspect of Bronze Age life that one would hardly imagine was possible!
In Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and Its Demise, Evaggelos Vallianatos, historian and ecopolitical theorist, shows that after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, the Greeks, especially in Egypt, reached unprecedented heights of achievements in science, technology, and civilization. The Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical computer probably crafted in Rhodes in the second century BCE, was proof of that prowess. It's the grandfather of our computers.
Greek sponge divers discovered the Antikythera Mechanism in 1900 on a 2,100-year-old Roman-era shipwreck. The hand-powered device reveals a sophisticated Greek…
I read this book a long time ago and went back to it again as it is so revolutionary and quite startling for its time (1968). His theories were often laughed at, but he has been hugely vindicated by later discoveries. I think he was a very brave man to write this book, addressing one of the greatest mysteries of all—how we became civilized.
He must have known he would be vilified for producing such a book, but he did it anyway and in doing so unleashed a torrent of unconventional archaeologists and explorers of the past. So much has changed since this book came out, but it is still a seminal work that, IMO, should be read by anyone interested in the ancient past and the evolution from simple farmers into advanced societies.
The groundbreaking classic that introduced the theory that ancient Earth established contact with aliens.
Immediately recognized as a work of monumental importance, Chariots of the Gods endures as proof that Earth has been visited repeatedly by advanced aliens from other worlds. Here, Erich von Daniken examines ancient ruins, lost cities, spaceports, and a myriad of hard scientific facts that point to extraterrestrial intervention in human history. Most incredible of all, however, is von Daniken's theory that we are the descendants of these galactic pioneers-and he reveals the archeological discoveries that prove it...
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This is only a small book, but it packs quite a punch. I love the illustrations, and he goes to some trouble to analyze the different animal reliefs and the structure of these two temples. These discoveries in the last century were again groundbreaking, and in the last decade, have changed our ideas about human civilization.
Newman looks at the background, the challenges of creating such architectural feats, and the possibilities of why these ancient people did this. I am intrigued by this mystery, and I like his analytical approach to this subject. There is, of course, massive speculation about who built these structures and for what purpose, but Newman has visited these two sites many times and put a lot of effort into studying and researching them, and it shows in his writing.
What is the earliest temple complex on Earth? Who built it? Is it really 7000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids How did such a sophisticated civilisation evade detection for so long? In this groundbreaking little book, packed with original reseach and illustrations, megalithomaniac Hugh Newman tells the story of Goebekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Nevali Cori and other temples in Turkey, which are so old that their very existence challenges history as we know it.
A nation under threat and a dynasty facing collapse under a much-hated, heretic king. Tracing the Amarna Egyptian royal family, from Akhenaten through to Tutankhamun and the final Pharaoh Horemheb, a picture emerges of a dynasty caught up in a religious controversy and the unfolding of an unstoppable drama.
This book explores the mysterious deaths of this dynasty’s pharaohs and the flight of one of its last queens, an older sister of the ill-fated Tutankhamun. Why did she flee Egypt, and how? Why did she go to Spain and then Scotland? How did she come to meet her death in the West of Ireland?
